Over and over again I tumble, my arms cycling in the air as I fight to breathe, to steady myself. I strain, attempting to open my wings, but they barely shift, pulling and stretching at unused muscles.
I cannot possibly find Leo. I’m falling too quickly, and there is nothing around me to mark the passage of time.
Minutes pass. Or maybe hours. And I keep falling.
You’re a gods-damned fool.
My head spins, blurs. And then I jerk, my breathing harsh as I regain consciousness. My stomach roils.
I’ll never be able to make it back. Even if I can find him.
A sob barely touches my lips before it’s torn away by the wind that howls in my ears as I drop like a stone through unending night sky.
And there is nothing to break my fall. I’ll just…keep falling. Over, and over again, until my body gives out.
Perhaps it was borrowed time. All of it. There’s a curious comfort in that thought, that I made it back to Hala’s sky after so long, only to meet the fate I should have embraced a decade ago. As though a circle is closing.
Hala is calling me home.
For a moment, I stop fighting. My muscles unclench, my arms loosening as I close my eyes. The twisting, rolling movement of my body steadies, until the darkness embraces me. Warm, and welcoming, even as icy-sharp air kisses my cheeks, my nose.
And when I look up, all I see are stars. So many stars. Surrounding me, gentle and soft and glowing. So many souls, and soon, I will be one of them.
And… Leo.
Leo is somewhere, in this vast darkness. Alone, and small, and frightened.
As I was, once, or so I had thought. Callan had been there, and I had no idea.
Leo does not know I’m here.
Blinking, I yank myself out of the reverie. My body threatens to roll, to sink back into that never-ending tumble, but I grit my teeth and focus on the unfamiliar muscles in my back. I flex them, push them out.Wider.
And then I flip, in mid-air. Until I’m arrowing down, my hair streaming back as I plummet faster. My skin is ice and flame, my eyes brimming with tears as I search the darkness for a little boy with curls that match the cocoa he loves so much.
I will find you.
I close my eyes, seeking the maegis. It glows, brighter than before.
Help me.I stretch out a hand, pleading.Can you help me?
It comes at my urging, winding around my hands. At the warmth, my eyes fly open.
Brilliant, blazing,dazzlinglight beams from my palms, so bright that it lights up the darkness. And there—not so far ahead of me after all—I see him.
Tumbling, just as I did. Over, and over again, his eyes closed.
My heart flips, and clenches. The light shining from my palms flickers.
No. Stay. I need you. Help me get to him. Unless you can’t.
The words seem to agitate the maegis. It flickers again, as if in irritation.
Then show me. You could help him.
Possibly. I try to hide my own doubt inside my mind, where it will not sense it. My maegis seems to be easily offended.
There is so much you did not tell me, Nyx. Celeste.
